


The Sound of Silence

by SheWhoWritesFanfics



Category: Kaeloo (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, updates biweekly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:00:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23229004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SheWhoWritesFanfics/pseuds/SheWhoWritesFanfics
Summary: Stumpy cannot, for the life of him, play the guitar - but that's not stopping him from doing it anyway. The others come up with an idea to stop him, but are they taking it too far?
Relationships: Kaeloo/Mr. Cat, Stumpy/Ursula
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	1. The Plan

Kaeloo entered the room and shut the door behind her. Quack Quack, Mr. Cat, Pretty, Eugly, and Olaf were already there, sitting around the coffee table. Kaeloo sat herself down in an empty seat. She cautiously lifted one side of her headphones and found, to her relief, that she was no longer able to hear the torturous noise which had been plaguing the residents of Smileyland for the past one week. Quack Quack had done an excellent job of soundproofing the room. Quack Quack stood up and everyone focused their attention on him.

“Quack.”

This simple “quack” was essentially a speech explaining why he had called this meeting. Stumpy had recently started playing the guitar with all of his amps tuned to maximum volume. While this would understandably be a problem for anyone living around him, the factor that exponentially worsened this was that Stumpy couldn’t play the guitar to save his own life.

“I think Kaeloo should be the one to fix this! She’s the one who was dumb enough to think it was a good idea to give Stumpy a guitar for his birthday!” Pretty pointed out.

The others, who had all gotten him video games, glared at Kaeloo.

“Video games are bad for your brain! Learning to play a musical instrument can help a young child develop his or her brain.”

“Quack”, said Quack Quack, reminding her in a slightly annoyed tone that he and Stumpy were only two years younger than her.

“You ruined our lives, Kae-loser! I haven’t been able to go on TikTok all week! DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT DOES TO A SOCIAL MEDIA STAR’S CAREER?!”

“Um, no…?” Kaeloo offered awkwardly.

“Well, of course you don’t. You’re you.” Pretty flipped her ears like a human girl would flip her hair.

“Come on, buddies, the music isn’t hurting us that badly!”

“Quack!” Quack Quack had missed an important announcement on the radio about a sale on dairy products at the local supermarket because he was unable to hear it.

Eugly discreetly signed to Kaeloo that Pretty wasn’t allowing her to be happy because she felt that her sister couldn’t be happy if she wasn’t.

“Eugly and I don’t even live with you guys! We’re your neighbors, and we still can’t even hear ourselves talking in our own house!”

“Even I a’m bothered by the noise, and my house actually has walls!” interjected Olaf, who hadn’t been able to yell at anyone. This was considered a win by everyone except him, but nobody really wanted to tell him that.

“Every time I hear that music, I feel the sudden desire to rip his arms off and stuff them in my ears as earplugs,” Mr. Cat said darkly. Everyone stared in horror. Mr. Cat would never admit it, but the real reason he was so mad about Stumpy’s guitar was that playing the piano helped him relax and feel connected to himself, and he couldn’t exactly enjoy playing his music when Stumpy had his on full blast.

“I haven’t been immune to the consequences either!” snapped Kaeloo. “Every time I try talking to my therapist on the phone, we can’t hear each other!” she complained, gripping the headphones in her hand tightly.

“Hold on, froggy, what’s with the headphones?”

“They’re special noise-canceling headphones that I got so I wouldn’t have to listen to that awful music anymore.”

Mr. Cat snatched the headphones from Kaeloo and put them on.

“Mr. Cat, give those back to me!” Kaeloo ordered. Mr. Cat simply stared at her in amazement.

“I don’t hear anything at all!” A devilish grin formed on the cat’s face as he took the headphones off. “I think I have a plan to stop nutcracker once and for all.”

“Quack?”

“We’re going to convince him that he’s gone deaf!”

How are you going to do that? Eugly asked.

“It’s quite simple, actually. We just put tadpole’s fancy little headphones on him and he won’t hear a thing!”

“You’re so smart, Mr. Cat,” sighed Pretty.

“I know, right?” a smug smile spread over his face.

“Mr. Cat, don’t you think that’s a little extreme?” asked Kaeloo, wagging a disapproving finger in his direction.

“Do you have a better solution, fly-nibbler?”

“Well… no,” she admitted. “But how will making him think he’s gone deaf help? We’ll still be able to hear him!”

“You do realize that if he couldn’t hear anymore, he’d have no reason to play music anymore, right?” he pointed out with a sardonically raised eyebrow.

“Very well,” she sighed. Everyone cheered.


	2. Silence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The buddies put their plan into action.

Mr. Cat walked towards Stumpy and his amps, trying to cover his ears with his paws as well as she could. If only he hadn’t lost at rock-paper-scissors…

“Nutcracker!” he called, but the squirrel couldn’t hear him.

“Nutcracker!” he tried again, a little louder. Still no response.

“STUMPY!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. This didn’t work either, so Mr. Cat simply whacked him on the head with a mallet.

“Ow!” Stumpy reached up to rub his head, taking his hands off the guitar and providing a much-needed halt to his music. Mr. Cat felt his ears ringing.

“Oh, hey Mr. Cat! Did you want something?”

“I just wanted to give you these headphones!” Mr. Cat handed him the noise-canceling headphones. “They’re supposed to help you get better at playing music!”

“Thanks, but… no thanks.”

“Huh?”

“I’m already good at playing music, because I’m so awesome! There’s no way I could possibly get any better at it!” Stumpy replied, a smug smile spreading across his face as Mr. Cat facepalmed. The rodent bent down to pick up his guitar, only to see Mr. Cat holding up a bazooka.

“JUST PUT ON THE DARN HEADPHONES!”

“Okay, okay!” Stumpy grumbled. He put the headphones on, but by the time he turned to face Mr. Cat, the feline was long gone. Stumpy shrugged, picked up his guitar, and began to play. He was unable to hear himself playing, for obvious reasons.

 _Mr. Cat must have done something to my guitar,_ he thought to himself. _What a jerk. Oh well. I should go watch TV. The Mr. Coolskin animated series must be on right now. I can talk to Mr. Cat about my guitar later..._

Stumpy flopped onto the couch and turned the TV on. He could see Mr. Coolskin’s mouth moving, but he couldn’t hear him. He concluded that the TV must be on mute and pushed the button on the remote to turn the volume up. He kept pressing the button, but even when the TV was turned all the way up, he couldn’t hear it. Naturally, there was only one explanation for this.

“Stupid piece of garbage!” Stumpy shrieked as he threw the remote at the TV, breaking it.

Kaeloo and Mr. Cat, hiding behind a nearby bush, groaned internally, knowing fully well that they would have to pay for a new TV. They both stepped out from their hiding place and darted over to the couch where Stumpy was sitting, pretended to look shocked that the TV had been destroyed, and began to yell at him. The yelling, of course, was not fake. However, even though they had the combined volume of an erupting volcano, Stumpy couldn’t hear a word they said, which was probably a good thing because if he could hear what they were threatening to do to him, he would require several years of intensive therapy. He was fairly certain that this was another prank devised by his friends so they could have a laugh at his expense - this was far from being the first time they did such a thing.

“Alright, why can’t I hear anything?” the squirrel demanded. When he couldn’t hear that either, he began to panic. Not once did it occur to him that the headphones were the reason for his current condition.

“Mr. Cat! MR. CAT! I can’t hear anything anymore!” he cried. The cat put on a surprised expression and beckoned Stumpy to follow him. Kaeloo tagged along and the three friends went to the medical examination room. Mr. Cat motioned for Stumpy to have a seat on the examination table. He listened to his heartbeat with a stethoscope, tapped his knee with a rubber hammer, and looked inside his mouth with a tongue depressor. He sadly shook his head and called the others into the room. Stumpy watched everyone’s faces change from confusion to shock and horror. (Mr. Cat achieved this effect by describing in great detail what he’d do to Quack Quack if he ever got his hands on a blowtorch, a belt sander, and an electric fan.)

“What’s going on?!” Stumpy asked, genuinely frightened. Mr. Cat picked up a piece of chalk and went to the blackboard at the back of the room.

 _You’ve lost your hearing,_ he wrote. Stumpy’s eyes went wide.

“WHAT?! How could this have happened? I must have been attacked by ninjas! Or zombies! Or that alternate universe me who keeps showing up in Smileyland!” he said, beginning to hyperventilate. Kaeloo walked up to the board and Mr. Cat handed her the chalk.

 _Maybe your loud music ruined your hearing!_ she wrote.

“NOOOOOOOOO!” screamed Stumpy, dropping to his knees on the ground. Everyone winced.

Pretty pulled her phone out and texted him. Stumpy felt his phone vibrate and picked it up to see what the message was.

_JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE DEAF NOW DOESN’T MEAN WE ARE! STOP YELLING!_

This text was followed by three angry emojis.

“I’ve gone deaf! I’ve gone deaf! I’VE GONE DEAF!” Stumpy screamed. He ran off into the horizon, continuing to scream all the way. Complete silence reigned for a few seconds, and then everyone burst out laughing except Quack Quack.

“Quack?”

“Too far?” Mr. Cat repeated incredulously.

“It’s just a joke!” said Pretty, rolling her eyes.

Everyone else may have been laughing it off, but Quack Quack had a bad feeling about it.


	3. The Fallout

The next day, Stumpy woke up in the morning, and he was fine for about 20 seconds before remembering that he was deaf now. He could hardly bring himself to get out of bed, but since this was how the rest of his life was going to be, he might as well get used to it. Looking pensive and miserable, Stumpy dragged himself to the bathroom and knocked on the door. Hearing no response, he entered the room and saw Kaeloo sitting on the toilet, reading a mystery novel.

“AAAAHH!” Kaeloo shrieked, trying to cover the lower half of her body with the book. “Stumpy! I told you the bathroom was occupied!”

“Sorry!” Stumpy apologized and scurried off, barely dodging the book that Kaeloo angrily threw at him. He’d forgotten that he wouldn’t be able to hear a response even if he knocked on the door.

“Stumpy! Wait! CLOSE THE DOOR!” Kaeloo cried, her face red with embarrassment, but Stumpy didn’t hear her, leaving the door wide open. He went to the dining room and prepared himself a bowl of cereal. Since he tended to eat food very quickly, he had already finished eating by the time Mr. Cat walked into the room half a minute later.

“I should make myself a second bowl of cereal,” Stumpy remarked out loud, and prepared to pour the remaining cereal in the box into his bowl.

“Wait, nutcracker! That’s the last box of cereal in the house and I haven’t had breakfast yet!” Mr. Cat yelled, but being unable to hear him, Stumpy proceeded to pour the cereal into his bowl. Mr. Cat’s stomach growled.

Once Kaeloo was done with the bathroom, Stumpy went inside to look in the mirror. Kaeloo had been able to rein in her anger and refrain from hitting Stumpy, but Mr. Cat was a lot more impulsive than that. As Stumpy examined the black eye he’d gotten from Mr. Cat, he noticed a zit on his cheek. Fortunately for him, he happened to be neighbors with a famous beauty guru.

Pretty was on her laptop, live streaming a beauty vlog.

“Today’s video is sponsored by Au Revoir Pimples anti-pimple cream! This is the brand I have used for the past three years, and I haven’t had a pimple since the day I started using it. It has a special blend of -”

She was interrupted as Stumpy entered her room.

“Beat it! I’m in the middle of a livestream!” she ordered. Being as self-centered as she was, forgetting important details in the lives of her “friends” - such as Stumpy thinking he had permanently gone deaf - was natural for her.

“Hey, Pretty, could you help me with this pimple?” he inquired, pointing towards the pimple on his cheek. Pretty realized that with some luck, she could make it look like this was a planned part of the promotion she was doing for her sponsors.

“Sure, Stumpy,” she said, forcing a grin for the camera. “You should try using -”

Stumpy decided to lip read what she was saying, hoping that he’d be able to at least partially understand her. He stared intently at her mouth, trying to make out the words.

_ You should try... asking? _

He understood that she was trying to tell him to ask someone else for help instead.

“You were probably the best person to ask. Your skin looks so good now that you could never even tell that the acne you got two weeks ago happened! You looked horrible! Your entire face was covered in huge pulsing zits filled with pus and you looked like a giant pizza! And not in a good way! You even had to lie to your followers that the reason you couldn’t make a video then was because you were in the hospital getting emergency surgery! I mean, it’s cool that they sent you a bunch of get well gifts and you got a bunch of money from the crowdfunding website you set up for the fake surgery since everyone thought it was real, but that acne was horrible. But since you look like this now, I thought I’d ask you for help!”

Pretty slowly turned in horror to face the screen, where she was being bombarded with (well-deserved) hateful comments and angry emojis, as well as one or two people threatening legal action over the fake fundraiser.

A couple minutes later, Stumpy left the room with several scratches in addition to his black eye.

\----

A while later, the group gathered in the same room as the previous day.

“Quack.”

_ You guys should probably stop this little prank of yours _ .

“But it’s so much more peaceful without his guitar music!” Kaeloo pointed out.

“I never thought I’d say this, but I agree with the duck,” Mr. Cat nodded emphatically. “Because of him, I didn’t get to have breakfast today!”

“Well, I did make you something else once I managed to get out of the bathroom,” Kaeloo reminded him, feeding him a forkful of syrup-drenched pancake. “A healthy breakfast prepared with love is a lot better than a bowl of cereal, don’t you think?” She batted her eyelashes at him and he shot her a soft smile that lasted around a second, just long enough for her to see it.

“Well, I lost all my followers, I had to give back all the money I got from them, there’s a hashtag and a bunch of YouTube videos about me, and I might even get sued!” Pretty ranted.

_ Where’s Olaf? _ Eugly signed.

As if on cue, Kaeloo got a video call on her phone from Olaf. She accepted the call to see Serguei handling the phone while several mini-fridge robots tried to pry Olaf free from several rolls of duct tape holding him to the ceiling.

“If I ever find that дурак, I’m going to use my powers as the emperor to have him executed!” Olaf screamed. Kaeloo ended the call.

“Besides, froggy, didn’t he also cause you some trouble this morning?”

“Well, yes, but at least we don’t have to listen to that awful guitar music!”

“You have a point,” Mr. Cat surmised. “I guess we’ll just wait a little longer.”

\----

A little later, Mr. Cat and Quack Quack were playing a game which involved sword fighting with chainsaws, despite Kaeloo’s protests that it was “too dangerous”. Quack Quack was being careful not to injure Mr. Cat, but since Quack Quack was indestructible, Mr. Cat felt no need to do the same. He swung his chainsaw at Quack Quack, who ducked - no pun intended - and then hit Mr. Cat’s chainsaw with his, sending it flying into the air. While Mr. Cat was uninjured, Quack Quack’s swing used so much force that the chainsaw hit a nearby tree and cut into its base so deeply that it was going to topple over. Stumpy was sitting on the couch near the tree; if it toppled, it would fall directly onto him and injure him.

“Quack!”

“Get out of the way!”

“Move, Stumpy!”

Unfortunately, Stumpy didn’t hear them in time.

“STUMPY!” they cried in unison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooh, a cliffhanger! *laughs maniacally* Sorry for my long absence, I was kind of busy with some stuff in real life and decided to rewrite parts of my original draft for this chapter. I originally planned to avoid adding Kaelat moments in the fic so we could focus on Stumpula but what Kaeloo fan could resist putting some good old-fashioned Kaelat into their fanfic?


End file.
